Tammy, I spent most of the day Monday watching this elk and waiting for the folks at the Colorado Division of Parks, and Wildlife to make a move. I never saw the other elk, but the Parks and Wildlife guys were aware of it.
They said it is not unusual for cows of different ages to hang out together in the winter. Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Jim Haskins said the younger elk appeared to be in good shape, and he thinks that the animal finally got tired of the attention that comes with hanging out in downtown, and moved to a more suitable area nearby.
Haskins said the young elk (he wasn't sure if it was a calf or a yearling) would be more than capable to take care of itself, and he would expect it to make it through the winter.
Haskins said that there have not been any more reports of elk in the downtown area, and he is hoping that the animals have moved on to a better location.
Hope this post will address your concerns.
John F. Russell
Photographer
Steamboat Pilot & Today
970-871-4209
highwaystar
Yes you are correct. I can set the ISO or ASA (they are the same thing) on my camera for each shot simply by rolling a dial on my camera. In this case the light was pretty flat when I headed out of the office, so I set the ISO a little faster than normal, so that I could adjust for just about any circumstance that I encountered.
By shooting at a 4000th of a second I not only stopped the snowflakes, but it also allowed me to get a shallow depth of field. I could have shot the photograph at ISO 400, and stopped the snowflakes with a slightly slower shutter speed, say a 2000th of a second, and gotten pretty much the same result — and maybe slightly better resolution if I wanted to blow the print up to the size of a wall.
But things on the street unfold pretty quickly, and when the moment arrives you make the adjustments you need to get the shot. In this case I simply increased my shutter speed to maintain the aperture and get the right exposure. If I had more time I might have reduced my ISO instead for the sake of image quality, but with today’s cameras the difference between 400 and 800 is not that noticeable.
Sep
Sorry Sep there are times when I get way too far into details and use way too much lingo to explain what I do with a camera. I was just hoping to share a few technical details with the folks who were asking questions in the forum. You are not alone I get the same response from my wife when I start talking about cameras. I’ve always been a camera geek and I talk like one.
The 70-200 is the focal length of the lens I was using at the time, and the f/2.8 refers to the maximum aperture on the camera lens. The smaller the number the more light it allows to reach the sensor and the shallower the depth field, which makes objects in the background appear out of focus or soft and less distracting than if they were in focus.
Hope this helps.
John F. Russell
Photographer
Steamboat Pilot & Today
Thanks for the compliments.
The photo was taken during the brief snowstorm Thursday Dec. 29. My editor, Brent Boyer wanted something weather related, so I jumped in my car and headed downtown. I didn’t expect the storm to last, so I wanted to find something interesting and I knew I had to do it fast.
I parked my car up the street and walked down the block to shoot a different subject. That's when I noticed this lady strolling along the sidewalk with an umbrella. I shot a few frames of her walking toward me. The photos were good and I stopped her, introduced myself and asked her name. After a short conversation she went along her way and I turned my attention back to the original subject. But as she strolled away into the snow, I realized that the composition was much better than what I had already shot. I moved slightly to get into a better position (I needed to get my car which was parked on the street to the right of the women out of the frame. I tried but there was no way to get the back side of the sign out of the frame). I made a couple more images as she walked away, and this is the image that made the cover.
It was shot with a Nikon D3 mounted on a 70-200 f/ 2.8 Nikkor lens. I set my camera on a shallow depth of field to blur out any unwanted objects in the background and to draw attention to the snow. My exposure was 1/4000 of a second at f/4. My ISO was set at 800, which allows me to shift to faster shutter speeds or add depth of field without making too many other adjustments when I'm shooting subjects in the field in flat light.
Hope this helps answer a few of the questions, and I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments.
John F. Russell
Photographer
Steamboat Pilot & Today
John Russell 2 months, 2 weeks ago on Focal Points for Feb. 27 to March 5
Focal Points for Feb. 27 to March 5
Sorry Mark just saw the comment and I'm looking into it.
John Russell 4 months ago on Out of harm's way
Out of harm's way
Tammy, I spent most of the day Monday watching this elk and waiting for the folks at the Colorado Division of Parks, and Wildlife to make a move. I never saw the other elk, but the Parks and Wildlife guys were aware of it. They said it is not unusual for cows of different ages to hang out together in the winter. Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Jim Haskins said the younger elk appeared to be in good shape, and he thinks that the animal finally got tired of the attention that comes with hanging out in downtown, and moved to a more suitable area nearby. Haskins said the young elk (he wasn't sure if it was a calf or a yearling) would be more than capable to take care of itself, and he would expect it to make it through the winter. Haskins said that there have not been any more reports of elk in the downtown area, and he is hoping that the animals have moved on to a better location. Hope this post will address your concerns.
John F. Russell Photographer Steamboat Pilot & Today 970-871-4209
John Russell 1 year, 4 months ago on Chance of snow returns to Steamboat on Saturday
Chance of snow returns to Steamboat on Saturday
highwaystar Yes you are correct. I can set the ISO or ASA (they are the same thing) on my camera for each shot simply by rolling a dial on my camera. In this case the light was pretty flat when I headed out of the office, so I set the ISO a little faster than normal, so that I could adjust for just about any circumstance that I encountered. By shooting at a 4000th of a second I not only stopped the snowflakes, but it also allowed me to get a shallow depth of field. I could have shot the photograph at ISO 400, and stopped the snowflakes with a slightly slower shutter speed, say a 2000th of a second, and gotten pretty much the same result — and maybe slightly better resolution if I wanted to blow the print up to the size of a wall. But things on the street unfold pretty quickly, and when the moment arrives you make the adjustments you need to get the shot. In this case I simply increased my shutter speed to maintain the aperture and get the right exposure. If I had more time I might have reduced my ISO instead for the sake of image quality, but with today’s cameras the difference between 400 and 800 is not that noticeable. Sep Sorry Sep there are times when I get way too far into details and use way too much lingo to explain what I do with a camera. I was just hoping to share a few technical details with the folks who were asking questions in the forum. You are not alone I get the same response from my wife when I start talking about cameras. I’ve always been a camera geek and I talk like one. The 70-200 is the focal length of the lens I was using at the time, and the f/2.8 refers to the maximum aperture on the camera lens. The smaller the number the more light it allows to reach the sensor and the shallower the depth field, which makes objects in the background appear out of focus or soft and less distracting than if they were in focus.
Hope this helps.
John F. Russell Photographer Steamboat Pilot & Today
John Russell 1 year, 4 months ago on Chance of snow returns to Steamboat on Saturday
Chance of snow returns to Steamboat on Saturday
Thanks for the compliments. The photo was taken during the brief snowstorm Thursday Dec. 29. My editor, Brent Boyer wanted something weather related, so I jumped in my car and headed downtown. I didn’t expect the storm to last, so I wanted to find something interesting and I knew I had to do it fast. I parked my car up the street and walked down the block to shoot a different subject. That's when I noticed this lady strolling along the sidewalk with an umbrella. I shot a few frames of her walking toward me. The photos were good and I stopped her, introduced myself and asked her name. After a short conversation she went along her way and I turned my attention back to the original subject. But as she strolled away into the snow, I realized that the composition was much better than what I had already shot. I moved slightly to get into a better position (I needed to get my car which was parked on the street to the right of the women out of the frame. I tried but there was no way to get the back side of the sign out of the frame). I made a couple more images as she walked away, and this is the image that made the cover. It was shot with a Nikon D3 mounted on a 70-200 f/ 2.8 Nikkor lens. I set my camera on a shallow depth of field to blur out any unwanted objects in the background and to draw attention to the snow. My exposure was 1/4000 of a second at f/4. My ISO was set at 800, which allows me to shift to faster shutter speeds or add depth of field without making too many other adjustments when I'm shooting subjects in the field in flat light. Hope this helps answer a few of the questions, and I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments.
John F. Russell Photographer Steamboat Pilot & Today